How the WILD EFFECT Turned Me into a Hiker at 69: An Appalachian Trail Adventure

It wasn't the wildlife, the fresh air, the scenery, or the promise of a simple life that drew retired textbook editor Jane Congdon into the woods. It was the Wild Effect! Record numbers of women were taking to the trails after reading Cheryl Strayed s best-selling memoir. Many, like scared of everything that moves Jane, had little or no prior hiking experience. Jane Congdon spent 17 weeks on the Appalachian Trail hiking with partners, alone, and with a glass good-luck charm named Ms. Rabbit, logging nearly 1,200 miles in 7 of the 14 AT states. This is her fascinating and humorous account of her ups and downs from bears, ticks, wild pigs, violent weather, and primitive conditions to the personalities she met along the way of a long-distance hike, and how it changed her perceptions of both Mother Nature and human nature.